To Play
by Kalira69
Summary: Kei watches over the children he seems to have accidentally adopted as they play.


Kei smiled a little, tipping his head and brushing his hair out of his eyes as he watched the children through the broken-out window.

Toshi was trying to get Sho to play some kind of game that Kei didn't bother trying to identify from this distance. Sho had clearly wavered in the face of the request fairly easily, but was now teasing Toshi with continued refusals, requiring further coaxing before giving way.

Kei's smile twisted, softening slightly. Sho had been a more serious child when he had first met the boy, but after the past few months he finally seemed to be allowing himself to _be_ a child, at least some of the time.

Kei was pleased at the changes in him, but at the same time could not help but wonder what had caused Sho's strange solemnity in the first place.

A snappish comment from the sidelines near where the younger boys played made Kei snarl quietly. Shinji's heavy reliance on his younger brother very well might be the cause, Kei thought - it had certainly influenced Sho's manner, perhaps more than the harsh life he lived had in itself.

Their lives hadn't grown that much easier with Kei looking out for them, unfortunately, though he cared for the boys as best he could. Things _were_ improving - but not enough for Sho to relax so very much, unless it was only that someone else now bore the brunt of the cares of their lives. Took responsibility for all of them.

Kei's jaw tightened as he growled, looking darkly at the third figure outside. Shinji was still a child himself, yes, but. . . Sho shouldn't have been bearing that burden before Kei took charge of them, either; he was the youngest, and his brother should have kept what he could from weighing on Sho - at least the heaviest worries.

Sho looked towards Kei and paused, expression wavering uncertainly with the beginnings of distress. Kei hastily strangled the low, angry sound he had been voicing and brought up a smile for his little one.

Sho grinned back happily, the same easy, open smile that he had offered Kei the very first day they had met, looking at him with blood dripping down his face and a dead man under his hands. His fearless little one.

Kei looked after all of them, had somehow without quite realising at first taken them as his responsibility to care for, despite Shinji's hatred of him. Ridiculous and oddly sweet, Toshi had endeared himself to Kei more than he would have expected, but Sho. . .

Kei leaned his head against the wall, eyes following the skinny, no longer quite so underfed child outside, darting after his friend. Sho was . . . _his_ little one. The one who clung to Kei the most determinedly himself, and who had claimed as much of Kei's shadowed and broken heart as there was left in him. In his own way, Kei happily doted on and fussed over the boy for as long as Sho would permit the attention.

Shinji made another harsh comment half under his breath, this time not about their foolishness in playing at all, but about being so careless outside as it grew into dusk. It was, however, now dark enough to allow Kei to venture out as well. He slipped through the window and dropped to the ground, stalking up behind Shinji.

"Let them play. It is no more dangerous than many things you have led them into," Kei frowned; much less dangerous, in fact, he thought with displeasure, though he acknowledged the boys had hardly had a choice, "and certainly they have nothing else they need do tonight." he said, his voice soft and firm. He held back the growl that tried to build once again in his throat. Shinji _was_ a child yet, however disagreeable he could be in his actions towards the younger two.

Shinji nearly yelped in surprise as Kei spoke, and Toshi laughed at him. Distracted by watching Shinji's jumpy reaction, the ball Sho had thrown in his direction hit him in the back of the head. Kei laughed at the boys as their game was abandoned in favour of Toshi chasing Sho around the dirt yard, shouting in mostly mock anger.

Sho laughed, teasing Toshi for being slow, and darted out of the taller boy's reach again and again with ease.

Kei folded his arms and watched with a fond half-smile until Sho abandoned the impromptu game of tag and ran straight for him, slim arms locking around Kei's waist in an effusive display of affection.

Kei patted the top of his little one's head, then rested his hand on Sho's shoulder. He couldn't bring himself to regret where he had wound up, for all that the initial choice of this path had been entirely unintentional.


End file.
